Yankees-Dodgers World Series Already Has Advertisers on Base With Fox

The World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers doesn’t start until Friday night, but Madison Avenue has already taken a big swing at the audiences projected to turn up for Major League Baseball’s flagship property.

Fox is sold out of fixed ad positions for the first two games of the championship, says Mark Evans, executive vice president of ad sales for Fox Sports, a better position than the network has enjoyed in advance of the games “in about a decade.” Advertisers that want to get into the first two games of the Series, he says, would have to buy inventory that would surface only if there were a pitching change, extra innings, or some other development that cannot be predicted in advance.

Fox has been seeking between $450,000 and $500,000 for a 30-second spot in the first five games of the World Series, and would expect prices to rise if there is need for a sixth or seventh game.

The network, which has telecast every World Series since 2001, appears to be in a better position than it has been in some time. Last year’s match-up between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks had narrower appeal to broader audiences because both teams were located in the same general area of the U.S. A Yankees-Dodgers match, on the other hand, will draw fans from both sides of the nation.

Fox was already seeing stronger demand for baseball during this season’s All-Star Game and in the industry’s recent “upfront” sales market, says Evans, but the emergence of the Yankees and Dodgers as participants in the Series has sparked a new round of inquiries. The network is now hearing from “more than just the traditional endemic advertisers that would be interested in this,” he says. “You will see a lot of advertisers who aren’t traditional sports advertisers, who might pick off a unit here or there because it will reach a national audience.”

Traditional MLB sponsors such as Capital One, Geico, Mastercard will be on hand, but so will movie studios, which are seen buying up more volume as they replenish their pipeline following the recent Hollywood strikes. Pharmaceutical marketers, insurance advertisers and technology companies will also be seen during the Games.

With the 2024 presidential election drawing close, another kind of non-traditional sponsor. Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are expected to have a presence across the World Series, according to a person familiar with the matter.